A synchronous electric motor is an AC motor in which, at steady state, the rotation of the shaft is synchronized with the frequency of the supply current; the rotation period is exactly equal to an integral number of AC cycles. Synchronous motors contain multiphase AC electromagnets on the stator of the motor that create a magnetic field which rotates in time with the oscillations of the line current. The rotor with permanent magnets or electromagnets turns in step with the stator field at the same rate and as a result, provides the second synchronized rotating magnet field of any AC motor. A synchronous motor is only considered doubly-fed if is supplied with independently excited multiphase AC electromagnets on both the rotor and stator.
The synchronous motor and induction motor are the most widely used types of AC motor. The difference between the two types is that the synchronous motor rotates in exact synchronism with the line frequency. The synchronous motor does not rely on current induction to produce the rotor's magnetic field. By contrast, the induction motor requires “slip”, the rotor must rotate slightly slower than the AC current alternations, to induce current in the rotor winding. Small synchronous motors are used in timing applications such as in synchronous clocks, timers in appliances, tape recorders and precision servomechanisms in which the motor must operate at a precise speed; speed accuracy is that of the power line frequency, which is carefully controlled in large interconnected grid systems.
Synchronous motors are available in sub-fractional self-excited sizes to high-horsepower industrial sizes. In the fractional horsepower range, most synchronous motors are used where precise constant speed is required. These machines are commonly used in analog electric clocks, timers and other devices where correct time is required. In high-horsepower industrial sizes, the synchronous motor provides two important functions. First, it is a highly efficient means of converting AC energy to work. Second, it can operate at leading or unity power factor and thereby provide power-factor correction.
Synchronous motors fall under the more general category of synchronous machines which also includes the synchronous generator. Generator action will be observed if the field poles are “driven ahead of the resultant air-gap flux by the forward motion of the prime mover”. Motor action will be observed if the field poles are “dragged behind the resultant air-gap flux by the retarding torque of a shaft load”.
There are two major types of synchronous motors depending on how the rotor is magnetized: non-excited and direct-current excited.
Vector control, also called field-oriented control (FOC), is a variable-frequency drive (VFD) control method where the stator currents of a three-phase AC electric motor are identified as two orthogonal components that can be visualized with a vector. One component defines the magnetic flux of the motor, the other the torque. The control system of the drive calculates from the flux and torque references given by the drive's speed control the corresponding current component reference.
In vector control, an AC induction or synchronous motor is controlled under all operating conditions like a separately excited DC motor. That is, the AC motor behaves like a DC motor in which the field flux linkage and armature flux linkage created by the respective field and armature (or torque component) currents are orthogonally aligned such that, when torque is controlled, the field flux linkage is not affected, hence enabling dynamic torque response.
Vector control accordingly generates a three-phase PWM motor voltage output derived from a complex voltage vector to control a complex current vector derived from motor's three-phase motor stator current input through projections or rotations back and forth between the three-phase speed and time dependent system and these vectors' rotating reference-frame two-coordinate time invariant system.
Such complex stator motor current space vector can be defined in a (d,q) coordinate system with orthogonal components along d (direct) and q (quadrature) axes such that field flux linkage component of current is aligned along the d axis and torque component of current is aligned along the q axis. The induction motor's (d,q) coordinate system can be superimposed to the motor's instantaneous (a,b,c) three-phase sinusoidal system. Components of the (d,q) system current vector, allow conventional control such as proportional and integral, or PI, control, as with a DC motor.